A Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author joins Ace with a stunning new science fiction epic. Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a genius at math, and blind. When she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality she perceives the landscape of the World Wide Web-where she makes contact with a mysterious consciousness existing only in cyberspace. Robert J. Sawyer has been called “the dean of Canadian science fiction” by The Ottawa Citizen . He is one of only seven writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo (which he won in 2003 for Hominids ), the Nebula (which he won in 1995 for The Terminal Experiment ), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won in 2005 for Mindscan ). In total, Rob has authored over 18 science-fiction novels and won forty-one national and international awards for his fiction, including a record-setting ten Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”) and the Toronto Public Library Celebrates Reading Award, one of Canada’s most significant literary honors. In 2008, he received his tenth Hugo Award nomination for his novel Rollback . His novels have been translated into 14 languages. They are top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada and have hit number one on the Locus bestsellers’ list. Born in Ottawa in 1960, Rob grew up in Toronto and now lives in Mississauga (just west of Toronto), with poet Carolyn Clink, his wife of twenty-four years. He was the first science-fiction writer to have a website, and that site now contains more than one million words of material. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgements   one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twenty-one twenty-two twenty-three twenty-four twenty-five twenty-six twenty-seven twenty-eight twenty-nine thirty thirty-one thirty-two thirty-three thirty-four thirty-five thirty-six thirty-seven thirty-eight thirty-nine forty forty-one forty-two forty-three forty-four forty-five forty-six forty-seven forty-eight forty-nine   about the author BOOKS BY ROBERT J. SAWYER NOVELS   Golden Fleece End of an Era The Terminal Experiment Starplex Frameshift Illegal Alien Factoring Humanity Flashforward Calculating God Mindscan Rollback   The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy Far-Seer Fossil Hunter Foreigner   The Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy Hominids Humans Hybrids   The WWW Trilogy Wake Watch (coming in 2010) Wonder (coming in 2011)     COLLECTIONS   Iterations (introduction by James Alan Gardner) Relativity (introduction by Mike Resnick) Identity Theft (introduction by Robert Charles Wilson) THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England   This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.   This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. Copyright © 2009 by SFWRITER.COM Inc. This novel was serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, with installments in the November 2008, December 2008, combined January-February 2009, and March 2009 issues.   All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.     Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data   Sawyer, Robert J. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-101-02897-1 1. Blind women—Fiction. 2. Women mat